Chapter 312: Autumn (13)

Inside the large van speeding through downtown LA. Miley Cara, with her blonde hair reaching down to her chest, stared intently at Kang Woojin sitting across from her and asked again in English.

“……it got first place?”

Kang Woojin responded calmly.

“Yes.”

They were talking about the anime ‘Male Friend: Remake’ that he had worked on in Japan. Apparently, the anime, where Woojin participated as the main character’s voice actor, had taken the top spot. But for some reason, Cara’s blue eyes held a trace of bewilderment.

‘What, what’s going on?’

She was confused about whether she should congratulate him or not. It was because of Woojin’s extremely calm or rather indifferent reaction.

‘Is it that being 1st isn’t good enough for him? Could there be a higher rank than 1st— no, that’s ridiculous. Or maybe it got 1st, but the ratings weren’t great?’

When any project takes 1st place, shouldn’t one be jumping with joy? At the very least, he should be smiling. Yet Kang Woojin’s face was filled only with indifference. It was impossible to gauge his emotions.

‘He’s really a character I’ve never seen before, and it just keeps getting more intense every time I see him.’

Miley Cara cleared her throat lightly.

‘Well, since it’s 1st place, I guess I should congratulate him, right?’

Having made a decision, she spoke to Woojin, who was looking at his phone. Even though Cara’s tone carried her characteristic coldness, her congratulations were genuine.

“First place, huh. Congratulations.”

Woojin lifted his head, his poker face showing no change.

“Thank you.”

“But- Are the ratings perhaps not as good as expected?”

Woojin, who had been staring into Cara’s blue eyes for a moment, answered her internally first.

‘Not good? What do you mean not good?? I’m super satisfied, though?’

He lowered his voice to a deeper tone.

“No, I’m satisfied.”

“You really don’t look like it.”

“It must be your imagination.”

“……Even if you ask someone else, they’d say the same thing, you’re too calm!”

“Is that so? I’m happy about it.”

Cara once again realized how eccentric Kang Woojin was. He said he was happy, but the aura he exuded seemed almost cold-hearted. Still, Cara understood Woojin’s state to a certain extent.

‘Right, it must be that level of cynicism that allows him to control his emotions. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to possess all those abilities. Even in extreme situations, suppressing himself must be a daily occurrence.’

She was mostly right. Hidden behind his calm demeanor, Kang Woojin was practically dancing with joy. Of course, only internally.

‘Oh- shit— seriously? 1st place??! That’s insane, haha. I almost broke character when I saw the results!! Anyway, 1st place! This is awesome!!’

Although he had predicted it based on the ratings in the Void space, seeing the results in reality still felt different. Regardless of ratings, the fact that ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had claimed the top spot was enough to make Woojin’s inner self want to celebrate.

‘Ah shit, finally one released with a great start.’

This was actually the first project Woojin had worked on in Japan to be released. ‘The Eerie Sacrifice of a Stranger’ was supposed to be the first, but ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had been unveiled first. What did it matter what came out first? In any case, the start had been made, and it ranked 1st. If he could ride this momentum, he could push forward with ‘The Eerie Sacrifice of a Stranger’ as well.

It was a bit like crossing off one of the piled-up tasks.

‘Haha, let’s go!’

Internally, Woojin was dancing, but on the outside, he was as solemn as ever. A few tens of minutes later, after Kang Woojin and Miley Cara, the entire team settled at a Korean restaurant. It was a pretty famous spot even in LA, and when Woojin entered the large room.

-Bzzzzz.

-Bzzzzz.

Woojin’s phone started buzzing with short vibrations. They were congratulatory messages. DMs from Japan, texts from Korea, and so on. Although Woojin wanted to immediately check the reactions from Japan and Korea, he held back. Right now, staying composed was the priority.

However, Choi Sung-gun, sitting next to Woojin, and his team were already in an excited state.

Ponytailed Choi Sung-gun grinned and said,

“Did you see the ratings for ‘Male Friend: Remake’, Woojin? It’s 14.8%! 14.8%! Dude, can you believe it beat ‘Magical Revolutions’!!”

Choi Sung-gun was almost hysterical.

“This is… This is incredible. Do you even know how long it’s been since an anime in Japan had ratings over 10%??”

“I don’t know.”

“At least five years, five years. Or maybe even longer!”

Choi Sung-gun, completely forgetting about ordering food, passionately explained the impact of ‘Male Friend: Remake’’s ratings. His enthusiasm was so intense that even Miley Cara and her foreign teammates sitting across from him were surprised. But, honestly, Choi Sung-gun’s reaction wasn’t strange.

After all, it was true that ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had produced record-breaking results not seen in years.

Of course, if you compared it to Japan’s past, there had been even more remarkable achievements, but you couldn’t compare it to the current barren landscape of TV ratings. The competing work, based on a popular manga, was sitting at around 9%, while ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had exceeded 14%.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to call it a massive sensation.

Therefore, neither Choi Sung-gun nor Woojin’s team members made any effort to hide their excitement.

“The A10 side must have done some marketing, but more than half of these insane ratings are thanks to Woojin oppa, right??!”

“What’s there to even say?! Without oppa, forget 10%, it wouldn’t have even hit 5%!”

“Wow— Woojin oppa, your SNS is blowing up right now! Japanese fans are flooding in!”

Soon after, Choi Sung-gun, who had been sharing his phone screen with the staff, leaned over to whisper to Woojin.

“Surely, among this viewership, there must have been quite a few who watched the anime intending to criticize you. Like, ‘let’s see how well he does’ or something? But so what? Thanks to that, we hit 14.8%, so we just need to enjoy it.”

If you thought about it, it was an ironic situation where the haters had turned into allies.

“Anyway, since it’s an anime that airs once a week, we’ll have to work hard on promotions to keep this momentum going until next week’s broadcast.”

They needed to maintain the explosive momentum. While some viewers might drop off after the first episode, the ratings explosion made it likely that twice as many new viewers would tune in next time.

Out of curiosity, if nothing else.

Kang Woojin, doing his best to hide his true feelings, replied calmly.

“I’m sure A10 Studio will handle it well.”

Then, Woojin turned his gaze forward and looked at Cara. Around her, staff members had gathered as she stared at her phone, a slight worry creeping into her expression. The people over there no longer seemed particularly interested in Kang Woojin, and noticing Woojin’s gaze, Cara brushed back her blonde hair and showed him her phone.

“It may be a good day for you, Woojin, but a big incident just broke in Hollywood.”

On her phone was a breaking news article from a foreign media outlet.

『[Breaking] Brad Willis attacked by a knife-wielding intruder at his home!』

The title and content were all in English, but that was no issue for Woojin.

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Yeah, he’s an actor I know well- I should give him a call.”

At that moment, the manager with a buzz cut standing next to Cara muttered.

“Haven’t incidents like this been increasing lately? Like terrorism. There was one just last month, right?”

“Oh— that crazy guy who showed up at Tom’s house?”

“Yeah. It’s because of social media, YouTube, TikTok. The number of mentally unstable people is increasing. Phew— it happens all the time, but I’ll beef up security.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Woojin, who had been indifferently observing their conversation, reacted purely internally.

‘Terrorism is a regular thing? Hollywood is scary—’

Later.

While Kang Woojin was wrapping up his day amid the cold reality of LA, morning was just beginning in Japan and Korea, where the issue of ‘Male Friend: Remake’ was unfolding.

As expected, the impact in Japan was several times stronger.

Woojin confirmed this when he returned to his hotel. Even with just a quick glance, the Japanese media was filled with nothing but talk about the anime.

『 「Male Friend: Remake」, based on a Korean work, takes first place with 14.8% viewership』

『Breaking all expectations, 「Male Friend: Remake」 takes the top spot for 3rd quarter ratings this year!』

When Woojin returned to his hotel room, he finally dropped the act and let a smile spread across his face. His grin stretched ear to ear.

“Hehe, it’s causing quite a stir.”

Indeed, Japanese media was relentlessly churning out articles about ‘Male Friend: Remake.’

It made perfect sense. After all, it was the first time in years that an anime had surpassed a 10% viewership rating. Moreover, the anime wasn’t based on a popular manga or light novel, but on ‘Male Friend’, starring a Korean actor as the lead, so naturally, it caused a massive stir.

On top of that, it had achieved a rating of over 14%.

『The Kang Woojin Effect? 「Male Friend: Remake」 Achieves Record-Breaking Ratings for a Rom-Com in Years!』

It would have been strange if the Japanese media wasn’t excited. Public opinion was also going wild in response to the unexpected result. With the media and public in such a frenzy, how could the production company, ‘A10 Studio’, behind ‘Male Friend: Remake’, not be equally ecstatic?

“14.8%??!! This isn’t some kind of error. right?!”

“How could it be an error? This is the official announcement!”

“Dear God!! We surpassed 10%??? Is this even real?”

“Wahaha!! It’s 14.8%! There’s a huge difference between that and 10%!”

“Quick, gather everyone! No, wait! Start blasting out the articles right now!!”

“That’s right! If we keep riding this momentum, it’s going to be chaos for the next few days! We need to push the promotions even harder by several folds!!”

It was more than a celebration—it was a frenzy. The term ‘going wild’ seemed appropriate. The director and production team of ‘Male Friend: Remake’, as well as the executives and staff of ‘A10 Studio’, were hugging each other and screaming. A 14.8% rating was the first for the entire Japanese anime market and for ‘A10 Studio’ in years. In fact, they were convinced that such a number might be impossible to achieve again in the future.

The same was true for all the voice actors involved in ‘Male Friend: Remake.’

“It’s a record! A huge record!!”

In the entire Japanese anime industry, ‘Male Friend: Remake’ was the topic of conversation.

“‘Magical Revolutions’ got 9.1%, and ‘Strongest Spy’ got 8.8%, but ‘Male Friend: Remake’ hit 14.8%??!”

“I can’t believe the gap is this big.”

“It’s not just the gap! How does it even make sense that it scored 14.8%?!”

“……It’s been, what, almost five? Six years? We thought it would be hard for any anime to surpass 10% again—then suddenly, out of nowhere.”

“How did it achieve such high ratings? Why on earth?”

“Well, the original did have some success, but I think Kang Woojin’s presence played a big part. Whether fans or critics, it was definitely Woojin who drew the public to their TVs.”

A new record was set.

In recent years, the anime market had felt rather stagnant, but ‘Male Friend: Remake’ injected a sense of tension back into the industry. By noon, the number of articles had doubled, and related content about ‘Male Friend: Remake’ began flooding social media, online communities, and YouTube.

The momentum, the flow, was accelerating.

Although the Japanese media seemed unable to escape their shock throughout the morning, by now, they had shifted their focus to Kang Woojin.

『The Star Who Brought 20 Million Viewers to Theaters in Korea—「Kang Woojin」— Does His Power Now Extend to Japan?』

It was a day full of explosive noise.

And by nightfall of the same day, ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had already dominated various rankings in Japan. Not only did it top the 3rd quarter anime viewership charts, but it also took first place in trending topics on Japan’s three largest portal sites, ranked number one on social media trends, and claimed the top spot for real-time popular videos on YouTube, and so on.

In total, it had claimed over five different first-place titles.

Of course, the name most frequently mentioned alongside all of this was

『「Male Friend: Remake」 Breaks Viewership Records! Kang Woojin, Who Has Brought Success to Every Project, Now Making Waves in Japan』

Kang Woojin’s name.

Morning of the 14th, Korea.

A day had passed since ‘Male Friend: Remake’ had taken Japan by storm. Yet, the excitement in Japan still hadn’t cooled down. In fact, it had only intensified several times over. Naturally, it didn’t take long for that heated energy to spill over into Korea.

– Crazy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Kang Woojin’s anime hit 14% in Japan ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– For real??? That’s insane ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ14% is crazy omg ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– No no no, it’s actually 14.8%, so you could round it up to almost 15%.

– Kya!!! Feeling that national pride!

It was the first gift that Kang Woojin, who had gone to Japan all alone, had brought to his domestic fans.

– No way!! Kang Woojin did it again?!?!

However, Korea’s reaction was slightly different from Japan’s. Rather than being frenzied over the success of ‘Male Friend: Remake,’ Koreans were more thrilled by Kang Woojin’s impact on Japan’s anime market.

– Damn itㅋㅋㅋㅋwho would’ve thought he’d beat ‘Magical Revolutions’ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– I agreeeeee. It seems like Kang Woojin’s more popular in Japan than we thought.

Korean dramas and movies, including Hallyu content, were experiencing a downturn in Japan. The only thriving industry left was anime. Then, all of a sudden, Kang Woojin crossed over to Japan and dominated even the anime market, so naturally, people were going wild.

But Kang Woojin hadn’t just taken over the anime market.

The first person to confirm this was Writer Choi Na-na, who was currently in Bangkok for the overseas location shoot of Beneficial Evil.

“Waaaah!! How!! Amazing, just amazing!!”

As the original creator of ‘Male Friend: Remake’, she too was jumping up and down in another country. Genuine congratulations poured in from PD Song Man-woo and the key staff of Beneficial Evil. At that moment, something flashed in Writer Choi Na-na’s mind, and she adjusted her round glasses, quickly typing on her phone.

– Swipe.

She accessed Japan’s Oricon Chart. It was the site where one could instantly check the real-time, daily, weekly, and monthly rankings in Japan’s music market.

“……Oh my God.”

Writer Choi Na-na’s eyes widened as she checked the real-time Oricon chart.

“Woojin-nim is number one.”

Because the opening song sung by Kang Woojin had topped the Oricon chart as well.

****

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